Robotic octopus arm mimics the real one

Some researchers from Reading University are working together to create a robotic octopus that they hope will be used for underwater operations such as maintenance, marine salvage, and retrieval of objects like black-box recorders from crashed air craft. Right now the arms of the octopus are being worked on and progress has been going well. The researchers have managed to come up with arms that mimic an octopus’s arm – a muscular structure with no skeletal system, which they lined with suckers to help the arm grab onto things. There’s still a long way to go before they’ve got a complete octopus robot, but from what they have so far, it looks pretty realistic although weak for a battery-powered octopus. Hit the break to watch a video of the robot octopus arm in action: